favorite if you could capture something that happened back then or, you know, the way they lived back then that they don't now? guest: oh, i think the--the--the voluntary association, the zeal that just, you know, getting people together and forming a society to determine america's national character or to get rid of liquor or to honor the sabbath or to whatever, just the idea that there was--that these people could move for women's rights, which of course happens in the next decade. i think that voluntary spirit was--was wonderful because it did create a--the--the social integration that i think is sometimes lacking in our world today. c-span: you have another book in ya? guest: i don't know. i... c-span: if you--if you'd had time, what would you write? guest: i don't--i really don't know. i'm sort of eager to find out. c-span: this is the book we've been talking about by joyce appleby called "inheriting the revolution"--that period back there--"the first generation of

americans" born in this country somewhere between 1776 and 1800. thank you very much. guest: thank you. ..

[applause] >> i am thrilled to be here to support the wonderful institution a tattered cover books that has given so much to support to what the results over the world and it is absolutely delightful to be here a second time. to be candid this is the end of a book tour for me so i am somewhat exhausted so i may invent an entirely new language. i am not sure how coordinated my speaking relationship is at the moment i am so tired i reached for one of my a tilt bills and i came this close to taking an ambien which would have made for a quite mellow reading. something fairly i got the right supplement at the right

time. i at the very least will promise you i will stay awake. my book is it "i love a man in uniform" it is about a marriage to my husband a firm the military intelligence officer. we will start off four courtship leads to marriage progress couple of months after moving in together we started talking about marriage. i had fantasized about a traditional military rating my beloved in his finest uniform in a meadow and a white dress for me and things old, new borrowed and blooper will be the chapel by been under an arch of sabres held high and as i pass the last he would tap my rear with the sword to say welcome to the army mambro but we landed far from tradition his proposal predicated not so much on will you but what if. the jungle drums of war was being and said that we had to

act fast. we discuss the situation you know, there is a war in iraq i am going, right? i nodded. and he said you know, what might happen when i go? we made an appointment to go to baltimore city hall to say i do just in case by didn't have time to be a wife saw on the big day i put together an ensemble of a post more punk bride head to toe black, skirt, fishnets and pronto sling backs. i grabbed my trenchcoat to cover up the november chill and we're off to city hall park or did not pass under the arch of savers like a traditional bride but i did have to go through metal detector. the security guard exhibited the hard to bridge romantic applied hearing we're there to

get married he said the emergency exit is that way. [laughter] on the way up to the chapel in the elevator i realized what i was not a war bride but a war on terror bride. i appreciate the image like i was a matrimonial song be free. it came down to maybe move the cat fight against bridezilla i would wind. was not weighed down by a 10 pounds of slop i was in a hurry and i was motivated. my own the wedding attendants work eight men and orange prison jumpsuits led down the corridor with their ankles chain together. we met in a graveyard now here we were getting hitched in immediate proximity to prisoners in handcuffs because somebody at the department of obvious symbolism was working overtime on our behalf. we found a little chapel on the fourth floor like put his

hand on the doorknob. are you ready? i held up our marriage license. ready. he opened the door and we looked around the vacant room and it was so so sorry worse than anything you would see on a vegas vendor. even the cheapest -- easiest elvis person later was say no thanks they can bring you into this mess. was glad our parents weren't there to see a. my mom would have swept at the flowers on pedestals with plaster and gold spray paint. that i all that dead ended at a foldable partition wall were great under a thick coat of dust. it was what it was a fluorescent lit conference room modified by the lowest bidder with props our heels sink into the carpet. we sat on the white folding

chairs and held hands why we waited for the official to show up. my palm started to sweat. i knew merengue soldier knew that during the military that i would have a government as a mother-in-law and if the conflict did have been the fear would broaden further still. if the army was a third party in the union the war would be a fourth. liz started to feel awfully crowded and that and the chapter o. i have the nervousness excited butterfly's with the added overlay of the year. what with the future be like for us when i got here? could i give him what he needed? did we know which other well enough to make this work? i have almost up and backed out. was five material? yes. the average army spouses under 3595 percent are female and the majority of wives work for about was are really up to the task?

the justice of the piece came into the room and we stood price followed my fear and we stepped up to the wedding march. we exchanged our bows under the fluorescent lights and re-signed ever marriage certificate and added our names to the city registry in with a kiss it was official. in sickness and in health and in "war and peace" we were wed. in a quick nondescript ceremony my life became a radical shift from free flying civilian ship to civilian spouse. one packs of the house that goes wherever she is told. the day i became the army wife when i received my a military id otherwise known as my a defense and roman eligibility reporting system card. with our marriage certificate in hand mike and i went to the issuing office at fort meade where the clerk agreed this us

warmly the clerk who shirker head. said what? we do not call spouses dependence any more. stereotyped be damned military spouses had castoff the dependent label. attaching the necessary paperwork is a security card, passport, makes military id and our marriage certificate. from their my affirmation and will be processed and put on a digitized code that can only re-read by a scanner a detail that felt advance and tyrolienne but yes year. in no time of the clerk had entered my data and the card was ready to print. she pointed a small web cam my way. quote on account of three smile. now we waited for a the card and do not lose this you need everything to

shop, compost, liquor store and get medical. i may not be dependent on my husband and i am very much dependent on this card. my card if started coming out of the printer. boeing 100 times faster than i'd ever taken up the department of motor vehicles. i was suddenly remembering the time might pose for playboy. reich recalled the and experience u.s. shocked about labor intensive it could be two new that getting into military or playboy would have been a thing in common? while they tried to fit me with the existing template. in 1995 playboy issued a casting call for a layout called women of the internet. because at the time the internet was still something of a novelty and playboy does love the novelty shoot women of enron women of all of guardian. [laughter] i posted a couple of private on-line conferences in a nerdy

bay area internet community which seem like a good enough qualifications a voice and in my photo and did not hold out much hope of a couple of months later i got a call from a photo editor named stephanie barnett who said we would like to shoot you and offered to fly me out to los angeles later that month. the good citizens of bunny land do not mess around and they sent someone to it lax to take me to my hotel out by the beach and show up shade moisturized manicure pedicure and her and face three of my gut. the following morning a car picked me up and took me to playboy studio was where i was shown the said the bill for me a makeshift stage a stripper poll and a bank of video monitors. they had a contract ready to sign their are changed into a white terry cloth robe and was shown into the makeup room.

demerged two hours later with her tease and a pamela anderson make tough job to rows of false eyelashes and browse suisse and then sold an oil slick costs over lipstick and the wiener bright could not believe the transformation like i was wearing a clay mask and i looked like a drag queen. [laughter] will build the my robe and wandered around the wardrobe area while the stylus decided how to dress me. the close were stocked in a two-story store room eight black-tie every possible configuration of feathers lever saturn velvet and animal prints. like peeking inside barbie dream cause a. the stylist considered by bild am covering and using their own esoteric professional manager chose to out negative of phone days but me in

rhinestone black mesh shrug and stilettos pro the photographer a playboy legend was a blessing and a curse. knew i could count on him to take wonderful pictures we spent by our shooting for one and ms.. w. was clearly used to much more experience models and the frustration was obvious. lee did his best to coach me link in your ways, chin up raise your arms overhead and grabber the poll. erotic. shut of madonna. i was about to break and have. he kept encouraging me to tighten this way but was so anxious i clung to the poll like this shy girl on amateur night. of the most of leading thing is how the kept asking me to pose with my arms over my head. i know this trickett lives your breast. sorry about the gravitational pull when they are real.

one of the assistance and we have a bag of many reese's been a buttercups if you want some bremen nervous eater so i could not keep away from them. i ate a good two dozen during the issue and to this day whenever i hear madonna's erotic that i crave been a better. [laughter] hours later we finally wrapper cry was exhausted feeling like i completed a systemic circuit judge this once-in-a-lifetime event was business as usual another day at the cheesecake factory. but awaited point* honored i was part of a very particular feminine tradition finally april 1996 the spread was slated to run but there was only one thing wrong it did not look like me at all. when the issue of the stand my dear friend called me and said i had to flip through the magazine four times define do you look like a texas oilman wife named a babs.

[laughter] the clerk handed me my new military id still more from the laminating machine. here you go. i had officially become a man. i was part of the big green army machine. i looked down at the photo of black and white shots floating on a light brown background. just as i suspected doesn't look anything like me i put the card in my wallet as a rite of passage to integrate into the army system for all-powerful like i was gaining not just the support of my husband but the fortificafortifica tion of legitimacy and institutional might. the foundation beneath my feet, offset that with business i felt in the name of my career. i was now on the team more than 1 million strong and as legions of other women married to men with the pledge i will follow you anywhere was no

longer so abstract notion it was now a way of life. on a january day 2003 when mike received his deployment orders we have already had the war looming over us for months. had i expected to be more emotional? i don't know. the only loss of the pool twice. venite got his orders i shuffled around the kitchen making chocolate chip cookies until 2:00 a.m.. i put them in baggies with love notes. when he found them on the counter in the morning he came into the bedroom with tears in his eyes. days later i found him sitting on the side of the bed he moaned i don't want to see any more dead people. hillary told me once of the hundreds of burned and mangled corpses being a platoon leader during the gulf war. at the end of the exhausting

100 hour ground war might soon it was making the final drive northeast when iran directly across the highway of death. the iraqis fleeing to wait city was trying to get back to safety. mike and the soldiers arrived upon the scene just four hours after the road was attacked by coalition aircraft. vehicles were still smoking some distilled with orange flames. the air stank of burning fuel and flesh. mike described amid the it twisted body parts were candelabras, silverware, women 's dresses, beads that had been abandoned brooklyn the back seat of a carmike discovered the body of a dead kuwaitis hostage bugs already settling into his wounds and his hands bound behind his back. he had been shot to the temple and double it blew out the back of his head and blood and chunks of brain splatter on

the up on wall street. his face of a peaceful expression and by his side was a photograph of a wonderful woman next to a birthday cake law. he was not sure of use it to plead for his life were simply beg to see before he was shot. i never ask mike about anything he has seen in combat before that or after i did not feel it was within my rights to press for the tiles and womanly intuition and guided me not to try. his reluctance to talk about such personal things did not seem uniquely male but entirely human i accepted my husband like many people preferred to process misery in private. lee indulgent and you'll feel better if you talk about it but whenever i hear that i think instinctively, no. he will tell me what he wants to tell me when he wants to 51 still *dais dais h* but i will

not ask. the one ball the separated my experience from his the was part of the world that i could not and likely would not ever know. he would be entering that world again very soon and i would be shut out. i would know little more about it and the space on our calendar, 365 days, 52 days, 12 months, one year. one year. of the big green canvas late are the bedroom floors a per undone and open wide. might try to convince me the deployment was not a big deal and after a few weeks of the deployment training the battalion was start out doing a brief stint in to wait then go north and spend the rest of the deployment providing intelligence support in baghdad. as a battalion executive officer his job was to support the italian commander with the logistics to be the right arm

for personnel. mike assured me over and over he would not be in danger i was not convinced of those more frightened about is going to baghdad was just across the iraq border and to really knew of the time the house for this conflict would spread? high wish i could fit you in here he said as he folded his undershirts welt technically you could but we let me how i would be sold this i would attack you but i was joking out of fear. humor was the only way i could be around it. was afraid of so many things being alone, not knowing what you do in his absence or knowing if he would be safe, it is the not knowing. i gave him my small battery operated digital alarm clock to keep buy his bedside. to have a thermometer to? the test of the button that could be interesting to said the temperature can get over

120 degrees. you are kidding, right? >> no. of the continued packing a i held a seventh dog tags turning them over and over. stamped into the tax is an affirmation of reduced my husband into a statistic. blood type religion so security number. i'm enchanted with dog tags a timeless military symbol until i remember their designed to function as a toe tag should he be killed in combat. two days before he applies the families were summoned for a family readiness group meeting. here we were briefed on every aspect of life pervasive and logistical and challenges to dealing with emotional fallout. this is my first time interacting with other military wives it was easy for me to tell the new from the old. new ones settler taking notes our eyes round like a bunch of bowels while the more seasoned

setback looking as if they had heard this bill before. the meeting was run by volunteers from four mead army service is. during the briefing one woman said do not do not rush out and buy a new couch or big screen tv. water ernest younger compatriot said it is our job as women to make sure our returning servicemen did not feel threatened by our work time autonomy. she short upper man's confidence by putting burned out why paulson to the fixtures of u.s. something to repair when he came back. i will keep my house altogether it will be a piece of cake. no assistance needed. the ever g leaders also told us as wives we may be overwhelmed and agitated about news reports about the warsaw we should not feel bad about avoiding radio newspapers and

television maturing shows a self-imposed embargo was perfectly okay we should not feel guilty for protecting ourselves emotionally. might join me just in time for the meritor relations portion of the presentation. sex and intimacy can be strained the older woman at urged us in the accent to let nature take its course. [laughter] back at our apartment mike took down the fireproof lock box. here is our marriage certificate. i smiled i had the branded certificate in such the front of my parents announcing our marriage you then moved on to new york stopping by his mother's house than his father's place in queens spreading the good news. mike the dog further here is your power of attorney he said

you need this to. what is it? it is my will. he held a outtrade said by did not want to touch shipwreck but i refuse. i don't know if my refusal was superstition nor denial but it is a stark fact we are prepared for the end of our life together before it had even begun. [applause] how are we doing on time? that is such a downer i would like to end up on something or if you are being held hostage? that's it happens when you're my friend and you come to my readings. i buy lottery tickets. okay.

is deployed, he comes home and reasonably good shape, reasonably good shape last set say the stars and incited after he comes only move to west point together and that is like being drop kicked. i don't have a personal connection to the army's would as if i bought a rocket ship to do better. it becomes reminiscent as my old life as a stripper. it is looking back at that with fondness simply because i think it seems familiar and it was a territory that i knew so i had a little bit of yearning for something familiar. so this is what happens. >> the lady gets in for free. in a fit of mr. olsten one tuesday night i dragged like to a local strip club called paradise island. it is a joint a place with a funky smelling carpet and dark

walls totally nude which means they sell no alcohol. of the browser check ids. regrouped our $5 plastic cup of diet coke and tried to get into a. boeing to a strip club with your man is an interesting litmus test for the one reset down at the bar i could tell he was uncomfortable he leaned over and whispered i don't know where to look. [laughter] the girls work their way down the bar there is nothing really exciting to be seen total female nudity maybe i don't care because i have that particular kit myself but it is kind of like being bed bath and beyond saying the same blunder in the kitchen at albreck i have one of those. i fiddled with my fist full of single slaying out fires reached answer that came by program had not had a wad of cash in my hand like this for a long time.

imus the gambler's height of a good night at the end of the night your hand turns black accounting of the bills but it is not a jolly adrenaline pumping big money night when the music is blasting and a hot smiling athletic girls were sprouting $100 bills. this was another bomb tuesday night were you have to rattle your can to earn enough cash to cover your utility bill. another stop startled me i am open-minded because you can float any fetish by me but to see a pregnant woman working in a strip club. i know pregnant women who run 5k and hot kayak and hiked the appalachian trail but still when i see a woman popping of belly teetering in high heels in a stiletto mini dress to cover her mother want to pick her up and whisper a way to a tropical island, not paradise

island or she can sit with their feet up and be fe and with paul frond with fortified extra the banana get this woman eight pedicure we deter 20 bucks. she looked great wall. cultural critics insisted the strip club that the answer has all the power but she is the winning control. it is a lovely fantasy that produces and but that is not the reality of the service business. the club is back in the dancers who are busy it is a racket in foreign guy gets even a little out of line the motion to the bouncer and it is see you later sucker. you know, customers are like trolley buses there will be another shortly. but the power is only as great as your demand. if you got no takers you got no game. list of to put up with demeaning comments about your body, have a confrontation

with the man that has roaming hands maybe 11 other customer when the money is tight the pickings are slim and the pressure is on the e crapper go home broke. beggars can beat users. exactly. whatever sex appeal you got a sort of enjoy it because of the pri's year new were girls coming in every day. it is a constantly renewing source of not good enough. a big mouth with hot writing young bodies recommended show up holding the girls are into it motivation is the bottom line but if you catch them on a good night and they are into it they may even be loving it. that small percentage is just enough to keep the machine running. there is something that such free even though you feel like

a slave in the darkness which you can put today the gender politics and all the power jockey and a listen to the music. some certain clubs make you dance a certain way protecting yourself. stay three feet from the customer, no bending over but there's the simple joy of movement of shutting close it in addition and feel yourself well of from the silly judgments. and the shy girl, the geek the slot the war who ever saw anything to our does not matter because it is your stage and your time. even though your attractiveness is on the auction block sometimes it is a solitude that is yours like a caged bird sings the dancing girls stance. it is not a ballerina discipline or modern dance stretching beauty it is the hard bargain. of years would have got. but if you take it know you're

not getting follows me. this little piece the beauty of this moment in the thank you spotlight is my own secret pleasure, my own sweet escape. whenever dirty business may happen in the audience the performance stays here. thank you [applause] i am opening questions i certainly welcome nosy questions that is why i am here. of you could just a pause so the microphone could get to you. >> my first question for you it is what is your biggest misconception about marrying into the military? >> my biggest misconception was very informed by hollywood where a lot of the scenes of military personnel where there is a lot of yelling so honestly do not think that very many military people have the inside voice so i would

thought it would be a redoing? i am here to pick up by thought within the first 10 minutes i thought i would have a migraine so to find they are such self-deprecating people and thought zero and committed to what they do. it was absolutely startling to me. i really was expecting very gradient shades of a knuckle dragging a episode to expose the thoughtfulness and the seriousness of part that comes with men and service, it has been a continuing experience of having my worst assumptions proven wrong that i am most pleased with as well. and as a lot more intellectual, emotional and a lot quieter. good question. thank you.

>> with what was the reaction to those closest to you when you decided to write this book and what was their reaction when it came out? and their reaction to how revealing it was? >> when you write a memoir you think you can anticipate the spot -- responded you can't of course, it is a memoir about my marriage so i got the better part of sportsmanship would be to let my husband read it i understand very territorial people who are about their work with they feel is their right to tell the story but my larger goal was to stay married. so i thought perhaps i should give him a vote. there was not much he wanted change. there are a few parts that are a little touchy for him. they say he had ptsd item off the has the disorder because he never missed one day of work and he never became so

angry she could not function so i would say posttraumatic stress and he had flashbacks but i know somebody wiser to leave their husbands have had flashbacks that we don't talk about it but to go public makes them feel folderol although this is a guy who was a published academic, intellectual, can do pushups on his fingertips but though one flashback out there and makes him vulnerable because soldiers are not used to letting people know behind the game base that you are to be ready for anything. honestly he hates the strip club scenes. but you were the ku will guide they did not discovered something new or modified. i don't know of most men would know where to look if they went with their wife and it spoke well of him and a fairly typical response. what is startling to me is

this is my second memoir and the sheer volume and intensity of the response from the other wives is blowing away. i have women that are in tears because it is tough but i think about the because army culture conversationally is soaked inscribed and you really do follow robert's rules of order you don't tug of sex and politics and religion or money. of rear very frank about our money and where husbands are doing and how it is difficult but there is so much that is left out. so the sense of readiness to handle anything with the game pays leaks over to the wives other is a whole level of conversation that we just don't have bravura lucky to make really good friends when you can break through that wall of formality and get to a real friendship that is great then forever reason you get to a certain post and you just don't meet those women, if

they feel they have that conversation with me when they read the book and it is going places that they've just done terror voice. you also don't know what will be the most rewarding thing. for me the most rewarding thing is not having crafted it weller debt gooding -- good reviews because the stuff they're responding to is how do you do with when you're man comes home from war and he is different and had to do with the fact you don't opine about the war. you don't there is the assumption of friendship because military wives of very outgoing but one of the top stressors is moving and you do that every two years you were living in a constant turn and we have a driving slowdown sucked it up and drive on. but there is so much in life that i don't feel you should

suck up because i think that belittles the feelings of akin get beyond these point* two the women and think they are focusing candidly from a friend one then it is beyond anything i could have imagined and that response the response has been positive but negative my husband and i have been part of the west point community since 2003 i have graduating the male cadets and we have cadets come over to take mentor ship from my husband when they choose the same branch so i feel very close to west point and it is part of my heart and soul and part of our marriage. i had a reading scheduled april 28 and they canceled it because i used to be a stripper and that sharply because a writer i took a nine i tried to be it as it vividly as possible or the "l.a. times" op-ed page or slate so

to make that personal platform than having all of that overlooked for some time machine factor let's go back to 94 just because of that? it made me really sad because it makes me feel like to i was then overshadows any contribution i make no. that is a reaction i definitely could not have anticipated. of first they did not say why progress thought the book stinks there was a lot of years. mw but then a very big bird cage liner. but then i found out it was a moral judgment i was shocked because was point* is the institution of higher learning were reeducated future leaders of the army. i feel academically they should be exposed to different

lifestyle choices and backgrounds just because high right about sex with the main that i am not writing about a conversion dialectic to abandon the commission to zero hipaa poll. that was a little startling. it is what it is. one of the chapters of the book is about my peer of -- fear of my past coming back biting me in the but and lo and behold. the day of reckoning has come. >> life i feel like a cat's. that is messed up that they canceled that. my apologies on behalf of them. by one to ask you when you set out to write this because it is such a delicate and weird thing, did you feel like you had to sell some sir? did you have to be aware that

you might do that? >> absolutely. every writer contends with that especially when you read about your life and the people in it. and writing about your imaginary friends or making a big fictional universe even than people are saying i know and gertrude is really the lady down the street. people always try to define what is real. that is the part of this the key joy of being a reader. a couple of concerns about was going to write about people in the army i had to conceal appropriately. people say the guy whose wife sheep that he was cheating through myspace they say that is this myth right? >> i say that is not the smith. they are wrong so i feel like it is a small victory. blond guy who i did write

about anybody will ever find you on facebook and my former neighbor who was so wonderful to me when my husband and i went three tremendous mayor to a crisis he said is this me and my wife? i said yes it is to be denied even recognize himself. i thought that was good. i was so freaked out about what army people and family members don't talk about that that became one of the running topix in the book instead of being intimidated and limited by it one not talk about what those restraints are? even the sells sensor became something of a driving force for the book because rather than buydown into the invisible perfect separate army wife who only talks about acceptable things like kids and recipes and a longer burger baskets, a volunteer

work, loving her country and husband why not talk about why we don't talk about it? it actually sort of became a snake eating its tail and tell me to roll along and say here's another thing we don't talk about. i have a lot of good friends online and their civilian and some are military brats the most don't have a connection so i would save you had the opportunity to corner a military wife what would you ask? i got this list of 40 questions. that was the backbone of the book satisfying the curiosity and one of the major questions was is your behavior police officially or unofficially how closely are you watch? what can you talk about? of was first in intimidated and interested it became obvious very quickly because nonmilitary people wanted to

know. we want to see the movies where there is some creepy general sank don't tell anybody. so we have that image. part of that is professionalism in the profession borough in a radically diverse organization and the military of different races, religions backgrounds, regional backgrounds, there is something to be said for being polite about brash topix and also military people profess to have taken a nose so you don't criticize the mission because it is talking smack about your boss and you don't do it. but that also creeps up to the civilian people like the wives and kids and people in the community. it is fascinating stuff because the first i thought there were having secret talk about the war meetings.

and do not invite me because it was conversational groups getting together and pounding current events into a fine powder i started asking my friends they said honestly i never had a conversation what we think about the war and what it does or families the struggles and isolation we are quite frank about that but there is no socially speaking the opinion is the calling card if you do not have the opinion you have to sit down because you cannot even play. so was very strange for me to have the complete reversal of conversation in these men. i still struggle with that i put my foot in my mouth so many times i need to keep a running tally at how bad was that? [laughter] i don't know what the reward

would be for the worst maybe exile. by step and go deep a couple times and i think that is fairly common for people who are new to the military. good question. okay we will wrap up. let's wrap up everybody. thank you so much for coming. this is great. so nice to have you hear. [applause] with 59 author out of the book strip's city hurt book has appeared at slate and "the new york times" and a contributing editor for spin magazine. for more information go to lily burana.com.

>> i am the congressman from the 11th district of virginia and i am here to talk about books. i myself am an avid reader i read an average of at least one book per week, sometimes to. most of my consumption is history and biography. i have a stack of books on one side of the blood based on the bed and i have read and another step on the other side that is two re-read in the coming year. i particularly am fond of american history and have read a number of biographies in the last year the red a wonderful book by the last crusade john quincy adams career and in many ways historians, very few have ever written about that period exclusively in john quincy adams career.

he spent 17 years here of the house of representatives after president with a distinguished career an outspoken opponent of slavery. and in many ways was somebody who foresaw of the union that would occur over that great subjects. he was just a stalwart and a fierce defender on the constitution of american rights and of course, defended the black slaves who had the famous incident of thomas dodd and quincy adams took the case to the supreme court and prevailed when nobody thought that he could. it is a fascinating story of john quincy adams and his time post presidential. think it is one of the few books ever written about that period of time in his life. one book i just finished reading when i got here to the

house is the house historian book called as the house. it is a short history of the house of representatives itself which is a great institution and has a lot of interesting characters of course, great history swelling around this place. a wonderful read for those of us who have come to congress this last year. hi went from reading from ancient rome so i read cicero and agusta is too wonderful biographies and also of the biography on julius caesar which was so good i then went to the novel on julius caesar which is also a great read. and the book and pm which is about cicero and then i could

not get enough about danger room so i read every novel and short stories stephen sailor has done. he created a fictional character but the history behind it is all that accurate and it is during that time period during julius caesar and the justice. i have had a lot of fun reading about history and even going through fiction to further informs me about that great time period in terms of and this time of barack obama one must read for everybody team of rivals which is a great story of how abraham lincoln bested his rivals but then have the fortitude to bring them into his cabinet each of them thought he was smarter than lincoln and each thought he should be in the swivel chair.

it is a great story and really eliminates a lot of american history. another book i read this last year or so is a book of a number of military histories, the coldest winter which is a wonderful story written posthumously buy a great writer on the victory and more -- korean war and it is well done it and of course, working on the trilogy of the first two books of the second world war and specifically the first volume on the american involvement in north africa of the second book is on the italian campaign which was a bloody bloody affair. it does not get a lot of attention in history and deserves a lot more. the generalist from "the washington post" is a luminescent writer and has a

wonderful piece of history and a great to writing. i recommend for people to understand what went wrong in iraq is a book called fiasco. he has a sequel which i think is called the gamble by have not read that. but a fiasco is a great book can terms of peeling away what happened to. and essentially the united states made some critical mistakes we pay a heavy price even now. the first was inadequacy of the troops that went into iraq that meant while we could topple the regime we could not restore law and order. plan that mass of routine occurred american troops frankly stood on the sidelines having to watch it because it was that -- not their mission and we did not have enough

troops. it eroded iraqi public confidence to reword and what we were about. second lane paul bremer was the guy put in charge one and overturn some decisions of the american military had tried to make an order to restore law and order and essentially rebuild a some kind of structure. the first is the decision to disband the iraqi military which had been at odds with what our own military was trying to do. by doing that he essentially created the a couple hundred thousand unemployed families whose main source of income was an armed military man. and thus fueling sympathy for the insurgency in frankly providing a source of weapons. and the third great mistake

was the decision to ban all members of the back this party -- baathist party from serving in the new government for growth will it might be understandable the me when them precluded but to go down to the bureaucrats who have no real choice but to ban them just treated hundreds of thousands of unemployed folks who were also very hostile to the united states and sympathetic to the insurgency. of those three big problems in those three bad decisions on the part of a previous administration and specifically paul bremer, one really help to shape what was then going to happen. of course, we're now in the

longest military engagement in our history one and all those things have finally started to show some of improvement on the ground, when you read this book, fiasco, you realize what the free made different decisions the outcome would happen much more positive and we might not have lost as many america -- american lives in the last seven or eight years. >> book expo ameritech 2009 yale university press we're with the director of feel university press. what you have coming out this fall? >> we have a number of good

books call the making of americans and hersh wrote a best-selling book called cultural literacy and he cares very much about what role education has been defining what it is to be american and this book is a capstone of his career which includes many best sellers and to talk about the centrality of information and knowledge of what it means to have a shared corpus of knowledge and how important that is too our national identity and how that is threatened by the way education is split across the country so it has a lot of argument and advocacy when ways to look forward two what a new administration can do about education. >> host: you have another book. >> guest: this is a marvelous book. it is very moving and touching. what she does, it is quite a

platform, she has spent on 2020 and "60 minutes". she tries to understand how human behavior affects global population of animals and captivity and it is a touching subject people who have let have read issues they will respond to the book because their actions have consequences on the key -- creatures who cannot argue like elephants. so she talks about elephants having nervous breakdowns that is what the title refers to with the emotional life of animals and how our own empathy toward understanding how they behave teaches us something about what it is to be human. it is an interesting turnaround. in our efforts to understand animals we begin to understand ourselves. >> host: to biographies by charles dickens and andy

warhol. >> guest: it is interesting everybody thinks we have learned we need to know about charles dickens but there has not been a biography in over 20 years of this is the first cradle to grave biography in a couple of decades and we are excited. there is new information, new research and i think dickens is a christmas story so there'll be a good christmas sales. and the other is a very distinguished historian who writes a column for the nation learned a wonderful biography of cost u.s. legacy that anti-war all left behind. a lot of people think it is interesting to look at anti-war call than his paintings are part and people look at what he did have all he has come one of the most

significant icons and how did that happen? largely through working very solidly with iconographic subjects whether the campbell's soup can or liz taylor and this takes a look at how he three determines or redefines what it is to be iconic. >> host: director of the university press, as director what decisions you make on a day-to-day basis? >> guest: easier to say what i don't. but all departments would run up to me operationally, editorial, mark eting, financial. starting with the books we have a staff of 14 editors and the press is only as good as the books it publishes of those of the most important decisions we make we're the largest book based university press in the country and the only one with a significant london base as well.

>> host: university press of the british 100 years last year. can you give me history? >> guest: is started in the left door of a lawyer who graduated from yale and worked on lower fifth avenue and over the decades became more and more famous and was interested in humanities and art history in the sixties it was a paraded into the university's itself year know a department of the university. in the '70s there was a big london office both and is still there today. and we do 400 books per year will slip in humanities and social sciences. >> host: mr. donatich director of real university press. thank you very much. . .